1 78 A HISTORY OF CHILE a high-handed freebooter, and, having gathered together three thousand men in the summer of 1821, even medi- tated the capture of Santiago and Valparaiso and the conquest of Chile. Colonel Joaquin Prieto was dis- patched against him in the latter part of 1821, and completely defeated him on the plains of Saldias near Chilian, October gth. He was then closely followed into Araucania by a force under Captain Manuel Bul- nes. His capital, Arauco, was finally taken and burned, on the first of February, 1822; the bandit himself was taken at Topocalraa where he had been obliged to put to shore in a boat for water, being at this time on his way to Peru with his wife and a few companions. Sentence was passed upon him February 21st; he was ordered dragged from the prison in a pannier tied to the tail of a mule, hanged and his head and hands cut off and placed upon high poles.
